ABC News Ties Sarah Palin to Pentecostalism
“As America gets a crash course in Sarah Palin, the question has been raised of how her two decades as a member of the Assemblies of God church in Wasilla has shaped her personality. If elected, Sarah Palin would become the most powerful Pentecostal in U.S. history. So how has this church shaped her as a leader? ”
What is interesting about this is that my father (a minister now for forty years) was an Assemblies of God pastor for seven years and was also a pastor for many years with Church on the Rock International. That is the ‘non-denominational’ church referred to in the article that Sarah Palin now attends. (My father is now pastoring a Four Square church). Church on the Rock is an association of churches, not a denomination, so they can technically get away with calling themselves ‘non-denominational’.
My maternal grandfather (a minister, pastor, and preacher for some sixty years) was also an Assemblies of God pastor for many of those years and then later was an ordained minister with the Independent Assemblies of God for about the last twenty five years of his life. My great-grandfather and step great-grandfather were also Assembly of God pastors. My great uncle is also a ‘Pentecostal’ (we prefer the term ‘full gospel’, ‘bible believing’, or ’spirit filled’) minister and has been since the age of sixteen.
I guess all of that makes Sarah Palin one of “my people”. I can safely say that I have far more insight into the personal theology, belief system and Christian world view of Governor Sarah Palin than the entire staff of ABC News could ever hope to have.
The Assemblies are actually considered pretty mild for “Pentecostals” and I wouldn’t have the slightest trepidation of putting someone with that belief system in a position of authority. If anything, a few more people who strive to be honest, moral, and forthright and who have humbled themselves before God might be just the thing our increasingly corrupt system of government needs.
What ABC is trying to say is that because Palin is a Bible believing Christian that somehow makes her scary, or dangerous or ‘other’ and therefore she should be rejected in favor of the secularist who attended a radical, black liberation theology church for twenty plus years and whose pastor and spiritual mentor is well known for his anti-white, anti-American and anti-Israel stances, rants and raves. This also means she is probably not a baby whacker or willing to personally officiate at lesbian weddings, obviously making her ‘not a feminist’ and worthy only of slander and rumor.
Sounds fair, doesn’t it? I absolutely detest the media. It is sad to see a nation that has now apparently declared secularism to be its national religion while rejecting, ridiculing and mocking the Faith that this nation and its concepts and laws was founded upon. The road is not always easy for those who have chosen to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
For those seeking some perspective on numbers, “Pentecostals” number about 10-30 million in the United States depending on how you define the term and make up one quarter of all Christians worldwide. They are a subset of the larger evangelical movement that numbers about 102 million people in the United States. There are significant overlaps between the two and they are often virtually indistinguishable from one another depending on the church and/or denomination. For example, both E and DFV attend or have attended evangelical churches and so do I, but they don’t attend a ‘Pentecostal’ church, but I do…
My theme song…
